Flood Rising (Jenna Flood #1)

Signs for the self-guided walking tour pointed the way to the control room. Like the Arecibo Observatory, the room looked more like an office than a portal for watching distant stars. More than a dozen computers and monitors, each one displaying a graph or lines of text, sat atop a long horse-shoe shaped desk wrapped around the room’s perimeter. Anyone hoping to see spectacular pictures of black holes or nebulae would have gone away disappointed.

Three men were working in the room, hunched over their workstations, busily entering data. One of them looked up and offered a friendly wave, then went back to his task. The others ignored them.

Cort cleared his throat. “I need to speak to whomever is in charge.”

All three men looked up, and Jenna heard one of them groan. She scanned the faces—all were middle-aged Caucasian men. None of them bore even a passing resemblance to her. The man who had waved rose from his seat and came over to speak with them. He eyed Cort’s crutches—Jenna could almost see him leaping to the conclusion that they were going to complain about the ‘walking’ part of the walking tour, but he kept his smile in place as he introduced himself.

“I’m Dr. Jon Miller. Is there something I can help you with?”

“Are you in charge?” Cort asked. Jenna noted that he was being aggressive to the point of rudeness, asserting his dominance to ensure cooperation. It was one of the techniques Noah had taught her, but not one that she had ever practiced. In her experience, subtlety produced better results.

The smile slipped a little but Miller remained diplomatic. “Well, I’m in charge of a few things. If you tell me your concerns, I’ll have a better idea where to direct you.”

“We’re federal officers, investigating a possible threat against this facility.”

The news hit Miller like a bomb. The other two men sat up straighter, appearing almost poised to flee. “A threat? I…uh, can’t imagine what kind of…uh…”

Cort allowed the tension to build a moment, then his demeanor changed completely. “It’s probably nothing, but I’d appreciate it if you could go over a couple of things with us. Just to be sure.”

Miller swallowed. “Sure.”

Soter stepped forward. “Would you please show us the scheduled activity for the next twenty-four hours?”

Miller nodded and gestured to a laptop computer that was already displaying a spreadsheet. Soter scanned the document, scrolling down, then looked back and shrugged.

Cort addressed Miller again. “How easy would it be to change the orientation of the array to send a transmission?”

Miller gave a surprised laugh, but then he became somber again when he realized Cort was not joking. “Not easy at all. In the first place, we’re a receiving station. And we don’t change the schedule for just anyone.”

“You’re not hearing me, doc.” A little of the earlier surliness was back. “If someone came in here, pointed a gun at your head and told you to do it, how tough would it be to make the changes?”

Miller went pale. “Uh…is that what you are—”

“No. Just answer the question.”

“We could do it from this room. It would take a few minutes.”

Cort turned away as if Miller no longer existed and addressed Noah and Jenna. “That’s it then. All we need to do is secure this room and there’s no way that signal is going out. Not from here at least.”

Jenna did not share Cort’s certitude, but before she could offer a rebuttal, she noticed Miller staring at her. She felt a sudden rush of apprehension and took a quick step forward. “Dr. Miller. You recognize me, don’t you?”

He shook his head, embarrassed at having been caught. “No. I’m sorry.”

“Dr. Miller, this is important. Do I look like someone that you know?”

He feigned ignorance a moment longer before admitting, “You could be her twin sister.”

Cort was quick to grasp the importance of this revelation. “Who? Someone that works here? One of the astronomers?”

“Sophie isn’t an astronomer. She’s with the track maintenance team.”

“Sophia Gallo?” Soter asked.

“I…ah, don’t know her last name.”

Soter turned to the others. “Sophia is from Generation Six, the same as Jarrod and Kelli.”

“Wonderful,” Cort growled. “Track maintenance. That explains how we missed her. We were looking for brainiacs. Is she here right now?”

Miller shrugged.

“We’re going to have to sweep the entire site,” Cort said, directing his words to Noah.

Jenna knew that was no small undertaking. There was a lot of ground to cover, half a dozen buildings, and if the array itself was included, twenty-seven antenna dishes sprawled out on nearly forty miles of railroad track.

Noah nodded then turned to Jenna. “Well, I guess it’s a good thing we brought you along after all.”

The words were barely out of his mouth when one of the other men called out. “Dr. Miller? Something is happening to the array.”

“What the hell?” Miller looked at the spreadsheet again. “There aren’t any adjustments scheduled.”